Former punter Chris Kluwe will sue the Minnesota Vikings over his release from the team last year in hopes of getting the club to publicly unveil the findings of an investigation into the matter. Kluwe and his attorney, Clayton Halunen, made the announcement at a media conference Tuesday.

Halunen said the lawsuit will allege religious discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination, defamation and tortious interference with contractual obligations, resulting in Kluwe's release from the team in May 2013 after what he says was a pattern of intolerant language by special teams coordinator Mike Priefer related to Kluwe's activism on gay marriage.

The media conference was called after Halunen received word Monday from the Vikings that they had "no intent" to release the report to Kluwe's side or the public. Halunen strongly suggested its release would prompt the lawsuit to be dropped.

"We would like to resolve this out of court if we can," Halunen told reporters.

Halunen said there had been settlement talks in which the Vikings would give $1 million to Kluwe, who would donate it to LGBT causes. Those are now on hold pending release of the report.

The Vikings retained former Minnesota Supreme Court justice Eric Magnuson and former U.S. Department of Justice trial attorney Chris Madel to complete what it called an independent review of the matter Jan. 3, the same day Kluwe made his allegations in a Deadspin.com post.

The Vikings' legal team refuted Halunen's suggestion that the report won't be made public and released a statement Tuesday which read in part: "At no time during the July 14 meeting did Madel, Magnuson, or (Jennifer) Robbins tell Halunen that the Vikings 'would not provide a copy of the report to either Kluwe or the public' as Halunen's press release of this morning states."

Minutes before Kluwe's media conference began Tuesday, the team released a statement saying it has "never made or broken promises" about the release of its report, has retained the employment law firm Littler Mendelson P.C. to review the report and has a meeting scheduled with Halunen on Thursday to discuss next steps.

"As we have consistently communicated throughout this process, the Vikings will have further comment when the investigation is entirely complete and the team has made determinations on next steps," the team's statement said.

Priefer was retained as Minnesota's special teams coordinator under new coach Mike Zimmer, who replaced Leslie Frazier in January.

Halunen said he has met with the Vikings' attorneys regularly over the past six months and learned many of the report's findings, including what he says was corroboration from witnesses of one of Kluwe's most explosive allegations — that Priefer said before a special teams meeting, "We should round up all the gays, send them to an island, and then nuke it until it glows."

After twice denying making the statement, Priefer eventually admitted it upon learning what witnesses had said, according to Halunen, who said Kluwe also was subjected to statements by Priefer about being agnostic.

"We also know that Chris' claims were corroborated by many different witnesses, and that this goes up to the highest ranks of Vikings management," Halunen said.

"We understand that there is evidence in the record that would connect (general manager) Rick Spielman to knowledge of Chris' reports, accusations against Priefer prior to Chris' (release from) his contract, clearly creating a connection in time between the decision to not renew his contract and his reporting to Les Pico (the Vikings' executive director of player development/legal) of Priefer's homophobic and bigoted statements."

The Vikings have maintained Kluwe was released for football reasons only.